Ecosystem Benefits: An Integrative Framework

Abstract

Ecosystems are distinguished by non-hierarchical coordination and collective generation of a coherent ecosystem-level offering targeted at a defined audience. This creates a momentum building challenge, as participation is voluntary and rewards and delivery obligations typically not contractually defined. We submit that ecosystem benefits—participant-level pecuniary and non-pecuniary benefits that ecosystem participants can expect to realise through their participa-tion in the ecosystem—provide a powerful inducement for potential stakeholders to join and contribute to the ecosystem. However, although widely discussed, different types of ecosystem benefits have not been coherently conceptualised in the literature. Through a thematic review, we organised ecosystem benefits into five key themes. Integrating our analysis of how ecosystem benefits are expressed in consumption and provision sides of the ecosystem, we propose an integrative framework. We suggest that ecosystem research needs to move beyond current dominant focus on consumption-side compatible offerings to also inlcude provision-side operational coordination. We conclude with a research agenda.